"Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, died Saturday, weeks after heart surgery and days after his 82nd birthday on Aug. 5. Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, and he radioed back to Earth the historic news of 'one giant leap for mankind'. He spent nearly three hours walking on the moon with fellow astronaut Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin." Our thoughts are with his family and friends. Such a great man. The world lost a true legendary hero today. This man will be an inspiration for generations to come.

"He wasn't a hero and he was no greater than any of his numerous other colleagues waiting to take that seat.

The true heroes and great men are the scientists and engineers working their ass off to get him (up) there; the ones who didn't receive any sort of prraise or credit.

Regarding the space pioneers, everyone is a hero, from the scientists and engineers to the navigators and astronauts. Everyone was important and everyone had to do their job, otherwise the mission would have failed and the astronauts would have been killed.

A previous comment by tanzam75 showed just that: the scientists and engineers could not have done Neil's job (and vice-versa). Neil's colleagues are also heroes. This is not a zero sum game. "

But only a few had the Balls to crawl into a soup can and be hureled millions of miles hoping to hit a small speck of dirt. But then again he was a Marine pilot, he had a lot of practice landing on a pitching/ rolling speck of asphalt in pitch black night.